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Dental data and the issue of the genesis of Late Neolithic — Early Bronze Age populations in the Cis-Olkhon region
Kishkurno, Maria S., PhD, Researcher, Institute of Archeology and Ethnography SB RAS, Novosibirsk, Russia, Kishkurno_maria@mail.ru, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0309-7413
Novikov, Aleksey G., PhD, Associate Professor, Irkutsk State University, Irkutsk, Russia, as122@yandex.ru, https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8965-8957
Goriunova, Olga I., PhD, Senior Researcher, Irkutsk State University, Irkutsk, Russia, goriunova50@yandex.ru, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5159-0894
Summary
The article presents an analysis of non-metric dental traits in the Late Neolithic (LN) and Early Bronze Age (EBA) populations of the Cis-Olkhon region, aiming to identify potential pathways of their genesis. The study is based on all currently available dental data, interpreted within the framework of a new cultural-chronological scale that relies on extensive radiocarbon dating of burial grounds in the Cis-Baikal area. The primary material for the research comprises dental collections from LN and EBA burial grounds in the Cis-Olkhon region, including Tuakhane IX, Kurma XI, Sarminskii Mys, Ulyarba, Khuzhir-Nuge XIV, Ulan-Khada II, IV, and Shamanskii Mys. The analysis employed both the extended battery of dental traits commonly accepted by Russian researchers and the ASUDAS scoring system. The two studied series (LN and EBA) are attributed to the eastern circle of populations, and morphological continuity between them has also been observed. The specificity of their anthropological composition is associated with the Early Neolithic population of the Baikal region. In contrast, the Cis-Olkhon LN and EBA populations exhibit significant differences from the synchronous populations inhabiting the basins of the Upper Lena, Angara, and Selenga rivers. The development of the latter's distinct anthropological characteristics is not associated with the morphological specificity of the Early Neolithic Baikal population.
Keywords: Baikal region, Cis-Olkhon region, Late Neolithic, Early Bronze Age, dental non-metric data, ASUDAS.
© Kishkurno M.S., Novikov A.G., Goriunova O.I., 2026
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Received 16.03.2026
Accepted 04.06.2026
Article is published: 15.09.2026
Funding. The research was carried out with the support of grant Russian Science Foundation, project No. 25-78-00051 «Late Neolithic — Early Bronze Age Cis-Olkhon populations: origin and interactions», https://rscf.ru/project/25-78-00051/.
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